Sayuri
by bitshoptyler
Summary: The dead cast long shadows. They occupy the darkness, our thoughts when we have naught else to think of, and exert their influence, disturbing the minds of the living, contorting them to their needs... One-shot, Sasuke-centric.
1. Darkness

**One-shot time, Yay! Okay, so this story actually has **_**nothing **_**to do with canon, and centers on Sasuke. Either way though, I hope you find it worth your time. It's split up into multiple chapters, and I think it'll be a couple thousand words once I'm done with it. EDIT: Turns out, it's only 1.5k... aw.**

**~~~•∞•≈•≤ ≥•≈•∞•~~~**

Sasuke was suddenly jerked into a bolt upright position from his dreams, a sheen of sweat covering his face in the dim light.

'_He-They all_.' Random thoughts stumbled drunkenly through his head in his post-nightmare stupor. He realized, then, that he was still in bed. '_It's nothing. They can't hurt me here. _He_ can't hurt me here. There's nothing…_'

There's nothing.

Nothing at all.

**~~~•∞•≈•≤ ≥•≈•∞•~~~**

Living with the dead was not a pleasant experience. Uchiha Sasuke was an example of this. Memories lurked in the shadows around him, waiting. Biding their time. They had all the time in the world, didn't they?

He quietly made his way through the abandoned compound, his restless pace exemplified by the cool night air, and the darkness surrounding him. Thoughts could not be trusted on a night such as this, he reasoned. They betrayed you, lent consciousness to the darkness surrounding. In their own way, they were slowly killing him, eating away at his sanity.

He simply continued his restless pace, forcefully steering his thoughts towards a safer place. Even so, he could not keep his eyes away from the shadows, watching for movement, signs of life. There were none.

Someday, he would find out the truth about what happened. His brother, the so-called prodigy. Uchiha Itachi.

Slaughtered. Every member of his clan, save two. He still didn't understand why. Instead of simply ending his life, like every other Uchiha, Itachi condemned him to life with only his mind for company. Not that it was very pleasant company.

He had considered joining the rest of his clan, for brief time. He wasn't that far gone yet, though. He wasn't going to simply end his life in such a futile manner. But he promised himself he would find out why it had happened.

Someday, he would find the reasoning of his brother. Until then, he would have naught company but the darkness; and his own, fleeting, sanity.

**~~~•∞•≈•≤ ≥•≈•∞•~~~**

**See that next button down there? I don't have much to say here, so click it.**


	2. Silence

** Timeskip, though I don't know how long.**

**~~~•∞•≈•≤ ≥•≈•∞•~~~**

Sasuke walked down the quiet path meandering its way through the Uchiha compound. He could hear nothing about himself, which was normal.

It seemed all life had left the compound. Not even the normal sounds of nature, omnipresent, could be heard.

Even so, he was dimly aware of the sound of someone laughing. It sounded _right_, the laugh of a child without a care about them. He still had to fight it off as false.

The whispers of the dead surrounded him. In some way, he knew that they were simply his imagination, maybe the wind continuing its ever-steady flow throughout the course of the world. Either way, it was comforting.

The inventions of his subconscious mind were greatly preferable to the quiet. Nature wasn't quiet. People weren't quiet. Stillness and quiet were simply inventions of things no longer able to conceive anything else. Unproductive.

He needed something else, something to occupy his mind. Given the simple space around him, it was… disturbing what his mind could develop. Noise was good. Simple interference to keep away any kind of treasonous delusions. He could do without those. He was fine by himself.

Still, undisturbed, he continued his monotonous trek down the path. The Uchiha crests, lining the wall near him, peered at him suspiciously.

So he closed his eyes. He knew the route by heart.

**~~~•∞•≈•≤ ≥•≈•∞•~~~**

The abandoned house, gathering dust; it was unnatural. The emptiness of the area disturbed him.

So he simply continued his rituals, gathering food for a snack after his schooling. A simple apple was removed from the refrigerator; along with it was some milk, gathered into a glass. The same food his mother had prepared...

The same; every day. He had continued this ritual ever since…

He once again steered his thoughts back towards the present. Studiously, he simply ate the food, still surrounded by the unnatural stillness.

**~~~•∞•≈•≤ ≥•≈•∞•~~~**

"Thank you.", Sasuke said.

He placed money on the counter, receiving a simple arrangement of flowers in return. A circular pattern of flowers, the inside consisting of yellow and white tsubaki, and surrounded by a ring of shion. Remembering and longing. It reflected the pattern of his thoughts accurately.

It was a well-rehearsed ritual. Every three days, after the Academy got out, Sasuke would pick up an arrangement of flowers from the man, Yamanaka Inoichi. Once he was home, he would place the flowers in a vase near the entrance to the house, discarding the old ones. It was the first thing he saw when he got home, and it was the last thing he saw when he left. It helped settle his mind. The meaning went further than simple flowers; it reflected his _presence_ in the otherwise unchanging household.

It helped him regain some stability, a reflection of himself in the abandoned place.

A simple way of acknowledging his existence in the world of spirits.


	3. Meaning

The whispers were growing stronger, he was sure of it now. There was no other explanation for the way he felt about them.

They called to him, seductively. He could easily get lost in them, if he let himself. He wouldn't

He still had a purpose. He needed one. There wasn't any way he could get sidetracked.

There was only one problem with that. He wasn't sure anymore what it was.

There was only the ever-present feeling that he could not slow down, could not stop trying. For what?

'_Father will be disappointed in me._', he thought, trying to reassure himself. The he realized _how_ he was reassuring himself, and nearly broke out in tears. Or maybe it was laughter; he wasn't sure anymore.

"_Why?"_

What was that? Sasuke ignored it, whatever it was. It wasn't important. He needn't let himself be distracted by unimportant thoughts.

"_Why are you trying to forget?"_

Sasuke didn't reply.

It was always the same.

**~~~•∞•≈•≤ ≥•≈•∞•~~~**

By now, he was used to the whispers. Every time he passed through the compound.

He was disturbing them, or the other way around. He could nearly feel the threads of attachment, tying him to this place, keeping him. He wouldn't stand for it. He needed to grow stronger, he needed to… he needed to do something.

The way he was… he wasn't sure. He wasn't sure about anything, it seemed.

_"Sasuke…"_

He didn't reply.

He made his way to the simple shrine erected near the lake.

"Hello, mother; father.", he announced to the emptiness.

There was no reply, not that he was expecting one.

"I've done with my first year in the Academy.", he once again announced.

There was nothing there. That didn't change his mind in the slightest. There were no bodies, even, left to mark their passage. All the bodies had been cremated, as was Uchiha tradition. They were all burned in the same fire that every member of their clan had carried within them for generations.

In a way, it was a clean break from the world. Nothing left to represent their presence. He was nearly envious.

_"Why do you abandon us?"_

Sasuke did not respond. He was above doing so. He did not need to answer the call of the dead.

_"You must avenge us… Sasuke…"_

He ignored the voices, or at least tried to. Revenge…

_"__…Brother, if you wish to kill me, then hate me, detest me. And yet survive in an unsightly way. Run, run and cling to life, and when you have the same eyes as mine, come to me."_

How many times had his thoughts returned to a similar track as this?

It was an appealing thought… a forbidden thought. Why? Why would he take revenge? He did not want revenge, he wanted answers.

It was appealing all the same… to find his brother…

He was unsure. As always. It didn't matter though, he wouldn't waste his time in this world of the dead.

"_You must… you will find him, and you will destroy him, in the same way in which he destroyed everything you care about."_

Yes…

The voices had suggestions… ideas. At some point, they were simply his mind making up for the lack of noise around him. Twisting it, forming the simple background noise of life into something deadly; it was surely the song of the sirens, so tempting… and so lethal.

Either way, it held such an appeal, to finally dedicate his life to something… to vengeance.

Yes. Vengeance would suit him perfectly.

**~~~•∞•≈•≤ ≥•≈•∞•~~~**

"Yes, thank you.", Sasuke said, once again giving the man money for flowers.

This time however, there was a new arrangement.

The same surrounding of shion, but instead of tsubaki, a new flower had taken their place.

A single sayuri, the orange lily. Revenge.

**~~~•∞•≈•≤ ≥•≈•∞•~~~**

**Okay, so… yeah, a one-shot. That's it. Thanks for reading. Please review… or I'll send the Giant Fox of DOOM**** after you.**

** Bitshoptyler out!**


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